A Series of Hardships
by JakeBenR
Summary: Meg's journey to becoming even half the gunslinger that Jo was. Somewhere between the end of the first season and the 3 minute epilogue on the OVA.


**Author's Note: **Just a little note I guess. I completely and utterly FORCED this out of myself. There should be few spelling errors and the like but that won't stop the whole thing from sounding really dry and boring.

What I intend on doing is releasing a ton of stories or excerpts of Meg becoming the badass gunslinger we see in that 3 minute special on the OVA's DVD. If you haven't seen it, I'd really recommend finding it and watching it. In any case, one day these stories might lead somewhere. Till then, enjoy Meg becoming badass.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Burst Angel or any of it's characters.

**A Series of Hardships**  
Femme Fatale

The spray of bullets sporadically perforated the large wooden table Meg was using as a shield. She kept low but still felt the rather newly familiar sensation of bullets grazing her leg and arm. Meg winced but knew by now how little time there was to really react to the pain. One day, she thought, these small-time, lowlife dogs would never hit her. She took a moment and judged the gap between her make-shift shield and the bar. Deciding to risk it, she readied, leapt and fired off a few rounds.

Three on the left, two on the right. She tried to gain control of her breathing. Tried to shake the weakness she felt the nervousness caused in her. Tried to shake the fear as it all, in a way, cancelled out the adrenaline coursing through her.

"Did we get her?"

_No._

"Go check!"

"What? Why me?"

"'Coz you're the new guy, idiot! I'm pulling rank now go check!"

Meg heard his cautious footsteps among the rubble that was scattered among the bar's floor. _Alright… alright… _The fiery-haired young girl gripped her guns tightly. She stood bravely, fired off five rounds and prayed that her aim was as good as it had been in target practice.

Five men down but only four men out. She could never explain the sensation she felt when surviving such a situation. She stepped over bodies to the bloody figure crawling away towards the exit. There was something exciting about surviving. There was something satisfying about digging the barrel of your gun into the skull of someone whose been shooting at you and pulling the trigger.

And Meg was just getting started. She dropped her empty clips and replaced them with full ones in a flash. Limping towards the staircase the men had been guarding, she quietly made her way up them. The upper section of the seedy building was dark and smelt horrible.

The floorboards creaked under her weight as she made her way down the hall. With a deep breath, she kicked open the door on her right and pointed her guns towards buckets and mops. She let go of the breath she was holding. She directed her gaze down the hallway again and pressed on, checking room after room for her mark. Her pulse was racing as she stood in front of the last doorway in the hall. She prepared to burst in.

_Alright… alright…_

Before she could kick in the door, it's top half exploded into splinters by what Meg assumed was a shotgun. She fell low to the ground next to the door and kicked in the bottom half before whoever had shot at her could fire off another round.

"You ain't gonna get your money off my bounty you fucking psycho! I'll pump you full of lead if you try anything, stupid!"

"Put the gun down and I'll hand you over alive!" Meg shouted but hated the sound of her voice. Like she wanted to give him a choice. "That is your only warning!"

Her reply was another shot at where she supposed the man suspected she was standing. Crouched carefully, she took deep breaths before turning into the doorway quickly and shooting the man in the leg. The shotgun spiraled off towards a dingy looking couch and Meg took cover again as she noticed him pulling a revolved from the back of his pants.

"I've got a hostage in here!" He barked.

"It's no good. The next ones going between your eyes." Meg checked her ammo as an excuse to get a grip of her nerves. She kept crouched, breathing steadily as she waited for him to make a move. She couldn't be shaking if she was going to do this. _Can't… tremble at all. _A brief flash of red devilish eyes crossed her mind and she shook her head. _Stay steady. Stay focused. _

The moment in where she pivoted into the doorway again was silent. She held her breath when she pulled the trigger. The rest was a blur. And when she realized she had hit exactly what she intended she came to and the room was filled with the sound of pained cursing.

She stood and walked to her bounty, gun still trained on him. Pulling a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, she flattened it out and dropped it next to the grumbling mans head. He cringed at the large text, 'WANTED' written across the top.

"You're worth more alive." She said coldly.

Meg took the moment to kick the revolver away and stepping back she crunched what was left of the mans trigger finger under her boot.

"Much more."

The man finally got a look at the hunter, clutching his hand to his chest.

"What the fuck! You're- You're just a fucking KID!"

"Must be pretty embarrassing for you." Meg pulled her phone from her large coats pocket. "I'll be calling some of your former friends in now. Be good 'till they get here, would ya?"

"I'll bleed to death!"

"That'd suck for me." Meg chuckled and dialed them in.

When she received her pay she was gone and relieved for once that she hadn't been double-crossed. Money was getting tight and Sei wasn't providing her the ammunition it took for Meg to become what the older woman called, "A second Jo." She thought about her past arguments with Sei as she walked to the subway.

"_This isn't going to bring her back, Meg!" Sei was usually a very composed person. However, the topic of Jo was a soft spot for her these days. She never expected the girl to come back for her and trade her life for her own. But now she lived with her blood on her hands. She never wanted this. And she never wanted to see Meg do this to herself._

"_That isn't what I'm trying to do!"_

"_I don't want to see you get hurt!"_

"_God damn it, Sei! Are you my boss or my mother?!" _

Those were just some of the ways their arguments had gone. After a time, Amy left, unwilling to play mediator. She had hid that reasoning behind just wanting to go to school and live a somewhat normal life. It was obvious that they had all been too naïve to understand the possibilities of losing their lives or the lives of the people they had come to love.

None of it mattered now. Meg knew she needed to get good enough to earn Sei's respect. She needed to be working with the older woman. It was her only way to personally assure RAPT stayed down… and maybe, just maybe, it was her only way to be certain of Jo's death.


End file.
